Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an aluminum bar produced by cleaning an aluminum bar-shaped work machined while supplying a machining fluid and a method for producing the aluminum bar.
In this specification and claims, the term “aluminum (Al)” is used to include the meaning of aluminum (Al) and its alloys.
Description of the Related Art
The following description of related art sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and certain problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
An aluminum bar having a round bar-shape used as a forging blank, etc., is constituted by, for example, a continuously cast bar. Such a continuously cast bar is produced by a continual production line, etc., for producing a continuously cast bar as shown in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2004-314176 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”). The continual production line shown in Patent Document 1 includes a melting step for producing a molten aluminum alloy by melting a raw material for aluminum alloy, a molten alloy processing step for removing an aluminum oxide and a hydrogen gas in the molten aluminum alloy produced in the melting step, a continuous casting step for producing an aluminum alloy continuously cast bar (bar-shaped work) by casting the molten aluminum alloy after the molten alloy processing step, an outer periphery removal step (peeling step) for removing the outer peripheral portion of the bar-shaped work, a nondestructive inspection step for inspecting the surface and inside of the bar-shaped work from which the outer peripheral portion was removed, a selection step for determining and selecting quality items based on the result of the nondestructive inspection, and a packaging step for packaging a bar-shaped work (aluminum bar) selected as quality items.
An aluminum bar produced and packaged in a continual production line as described above is commonly not used immediately, but stored for a predetermined period of time. During the storage, the aluminum bar may sometimes be left for a long time in a harsh environment, for example, for more than one week at a temperature of 30° C. and humidity of 80%. Therefore, during the storage, there was a risk that an appearance of soiling and/or an occurrence of corrosion, such as, e.g., oxidation, on the surface of the aluminum bar may cause, resulting in deterioration of the quality.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present disclosure. For example, certain features of the preferred described embodiments of the disclosure may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.